Typo Patrol: Getting “airborn”
November 13, 2009 by Shannon
I haven’t been feeling quite myself lately. I have a persistent, yet mild, sore throat and a general feeling of malaise. (I just love that word. Malaise.) So I’ve been mixing up a daily cocktail of raspberry-flavored Emergen-C and a drugstore brand of cold remedy similar to Airborne. It’s quite good, actually.
The other day as I waited for the Airborne-like tablet to finish fizzing in the glass, something on the packaging caught my eye. It reads “Handborn & Airborn Germ Defense.” I have a couple problems with that. First of all, handborn isn’t really a word. Neither is handborne. Neither is hand-borne. Perhaps it should be a word, but it just isn’t. In fact, a search of Merriam-Webster.com for the more commonly used (in medical circles) hand-borne, turns up a list of spelling suggestions such as hindbrain and handbarrow. Secondly, airborne is a word but airborn is not.
Now, one would assume that the misspelling of airborne on this packaging is intentional. Perhaps spelling it correctly would be a trademark violation against the Airborne brand. All right then. I can handle that reasoning. However, what I cannot abide is a misspelling of the word extracts.
Yes friends, also right there on the package is a blatant typo: extacts.
So let this be a heads up to those of you planning to purchase a drugstore brand of Airborne: be aware that the herbal extracts you thought you were ingesting from your citrus-flavored fizzy beverage are, in fact, extacts. Just so you know.
Comments (3)
I love this! This is why I’ve started blog editing for people… because there are too many “extacts” in this world.
Somebody has to do something about it! Thanks for kicking my day into gear with the best remedy of all… laughter.
I like good spelling at least as much as the next gal or guy, but if I were you, I’d worry more about that herbal essence (however obtained) that’s mixed in without any sort of FDA oversight. Placebo pills might be better for that malaise of yours.
Did you get this stuff at the dollar store? I would tend be slightly afraid of this product because of the spelling mistakes - but I’m paranoid like that.